Helping Leanbox
by Pudding and Candy
Summary: Leanbox is in trouble, the CPU there has gone missing... to play cosplay with Planeptune's CPU Candidate. Chika is understandably upset, and very soon Leanbox could crumble. In her darkest time Chika meets with the only one who understands her problems and to help her: Planeptune's CPU.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** HDN belongs to Compile Heart and Idea Factor.

This story takes place after normal and Leanbox endings of mk2.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Rebuild**

The nation of Leanbox is in serious trouble. At least according to Chika it is, with the Oracle being a well-known drama queen and dramatising everything like the end of the world. Though there is some truth within her beliefs this time though. Since the defeat of the Deity of Sin at the Gamindustri Graveyard, Leanbox's CPU is often found in Planeptune instead, always playing cosplay with the CPU Candidate there.

Due to that, many things in Leanbox have been stagnant and does not look to be getting better anytime soon. It was normal for Vert to sometimes take time off for gaming sessions or some other hobbies. However, what made the current events just so unbearable for Chika was that the hobby was cosplay, and moreso that it also did not involve her at all, but Planeptune's CPU Candidate. Truthfully, Chika would rather not have to see Vert go to Planeptune or Nepgear over at Leanbox at all, how dare something take away all her time with Vert!

Yet, that was the reality of things, and it had all gotten so bad that it was all reflected off the shares of Leanbox. Usually in Gamindustri the friendless workaholic known as Noire (And Uni, but at least Uni has friends) would have most of the shares, then Lowee is behind them with an intelligent CPU and her sisters. From there on, it was Leanbox and Planeptune floating around the same with shares due to laziness with their respective CPUs. Not so right now though, with Vert always with Nepgear, Leanbox's shares have fallen even below Planeptune, a very embarrassing position.

"Ugh, Vert has left everything here, what does she see in _that_ CPU Candidate anyway? I must do something before Vert is lost!" Chika said, looking at all the work piling on her desk, while looking towards the direction of Planeptune, most likley where Vert is at right now. Yet, most of the time Chika refused to really interrupt Vert's time with Nepgear, seeing how happy Vert was is most of the time. Still, she could not help but wonder why it had to be like this. Was Chika not enough for Vert? And why that Nepgear of all people? Vert could have just taken a sister from Lowee and Blanc probably would not even notice (Well she would, but at least she has two sisters).

It was no use in trying to think things over and over, Chika went outside to try and relax a bit. Hopefully there would be some work done soon, but Chika could not be so sure of it, as it was only herself for the most part. Still, for whatever reason, Chika found herself heading in the direction of Planeptune, muttering how she wishes the Planeptune's CPU Candidate would not steal her Vert away.

"If only that Nepgear wasn't around... then my life would be better..." Chika whispered to herself, exaggerating the crisis and fumbling around aimlessly by Virtua Forest. Of course, while Chika is all focused on her own problem, she failed to notice a small herd of Dogoos racing her way. "Oh no..."

Before anything else happened though, another figured jumped right into the scene, smashing the Dogoos into a big liquid mess. Even though the execution was messy, the Dogoos were taken care of quite promptly, which saved Chika a bit of trouble. Still, this figure looked like Nepgear! And there could not possibly be anyone worse to see. Fortunately though, this figure had two white D-Clips on her head instead of the single one that Nepgear has.

"Whoah! It's Chika, whatcha doin over here today? Oh wait, you're lookin for Vert aren't you?" Said the figure, who Chika recognises as the Neptune.

"No... I mean, yes! Today I shall reclaim Vert from that Nepgear's brainwashing and finally build up Leanbox again. There is so much work to be done, and right now everything is about to fall apart..." Chika responded, determined to somehow get her Vert back.

"Yeah I hear you. Though most of the time, it is mainly Vert that is leading the way and taking Nep Jr. away from me..." Neptune corrected, knowing that Nepgear was not capable of brainwashing people (and it was more likely the other way around).

Chika sighed, knowing what Neptune said is the truth, Nepgear did not do anything to Vert, but rather it was Vert who was always running to Nepgear instead, "I know... but still, why does my Lady Vert abandon me like this? It has been so lonely all this time, and without any work done, Leanbox is in trouble! Oh, my life feels all spent too, I cannot go on anymore~"

"(Oh wow, Chika seems to be in a really bad shape... I wonder if this is how Histy feels when I run away all the time? Even though I have been the one doing all the work with Vert always taking Nep Jr. away from me... hm, I think I know what to do!)" Neptune thought, having an idea to (hopefully) turn things around for the better. "Umm hey, Chika? Are you still alive down there?"

"Uggh, barely hanging on. Leanbox is dying and so am I," Chika responded, having fallen to the ground in exhaustion (even though she would like fake it as dying from lack of shares).

"So uhhh, I know you're missing Vert a whole lot here, and it's kinda the same thing for me too, Nep Jr. never has time for me. And you know, I was wonderin if I could help you out..."

"Huh? You will help me?"

"Yeah, I ain't no Vert, but I've got work too, if we work together, we can figure something out," Neptune finished, while picking up the Oracle and heading towards Leanbox.

Arriving back at Leanbox, Neptune had let Chika rest in the basilicom and went to the guild to turn in some quests. Of course, Chika had realised by now unlike the other people that knew her well enough, Neptune did not catch on to her drama queen tendencies and _actually_ mistook her for actually dying. Still, this was not the worst situation, Neptune did have a point, the two of them were in the same situation with work as well as their closest loved ones unreachable.

Nevertheless, Chika made a mental note not to abuse her drama queen self to manipulate Neptune, because that would just be mean. Getting up from her "rest" Chika inspected the large pile of papers that Neptune had laid on the nearby desk, it seems like Neptune was not lying about having to do all the work around Planeptune. After all, with Vert playing cosplay with Nepgear, it only left Neptune to do most, if not all of the work. Histoire had probably let things slide with Nepgear considering the Candidate's recent adventure and fight with ASIC.

The door to the room opened shortly afterwards, with Neptune entering and feeling exhausted from the work day already. "Ahhh, I feel tired already, but it is only half way through the day! Oh, you're alive!"

"Yes, I am feeling much better now, thank you. So now, what did you have in mind for getting Vert back to here?" Chika asked, knowing her priorities.

"Oh... well, normally I would say take her shares so that she would have to take notice of it, but..." Neptune trailed off, since even she was aware of how pitifully low Leanbox's shares are compared to Planeptune with Vert's negligence.

"Yeah, I would have thought that she'd at least notice what's going on, but instead she continues to go to her..."

"I know, I wished Nep Jr. would see how much I am suffering too. But anyway, I would think that the first thing would be to clear out some quests so Leanbox doesn't crumble to pieces. You have any suggestions for me?"

"Hm, I do know of some items the guild needs as well as areas where monsters are causing trouble, are you willing to help with that?"

"Of course! Fighting and getting drops are my thing, not paperwork!"

Having the list of quests, Neptune set off to complete them as promised, while Chika took a break from going through all of Leanbox's work to help Neptune with the paper work. Of course, it was not as if Chika was forging signatures or anything, she simply summarised the core issues and made a list of things the proposals described and made it so that Neptune only needed a signature to complete the work. Naturally, some of the more controversial or important issue she left to Neptune's discretion on whether to sign it or not. Even though all of this work would not directly bring Vert back, at least Leanbox will not be in critical danger, and that was enough for Chika (for now anyway).

As the day drew to a close, Neptune opened the door to the room again, even more exhausted than before, but she had accomplished all the quests and more for her own Planeptune as well.

"I am so done for, it felt like I have been all over the place! But... at least Leanbox has bigger sized pudding!" Neptune said, pulling out a massive pudding cup that was about twice the size of what she could buy in Planeptune.

"Well, I am glad Leanbox suits your tastes. Anyway, good job out there, I have been hearing reports of everything throughout the day. I have also simplified your paper work, all you need is to sign them," Chika responded, handing the mountainous stack of papers back to Neptune.

"Ooof! Thanks I guess... Well, we haven't done much to get Nep Jr. or Vert back, but this is a start, right?"

"I don't exactly know how to get Vert to stop what she's doing, but I am all open to suggestions."

"Well, I'll think of something. If I can somehow get Nep Jr. back, then Vert will probably return. Anyway, once I finish up with these papers, I will think about it tonight."

Having just needing signatures on the papers to approve or deny proposals, Neptune was able to fill out all the required forms and headed back to Planeptune. Surprisingly, even while it was getting late, Vert had not yet returned to Leanbox's basilicom yet. However, Neptune sort of knew what was going on, because in addition to cosplay, Vert had also been taking Nepgear outside all around Gamindustri for whatever activities suited them (And this of course, annoyed Neptune more and more by the day. Yet, without Nepgear to help out with the workload, Neptune had less time to intervene). Having entered the basilicom, Neptune placed down all the papers on her desk and breathed a sigh of relief, it had not been an easy day.

"Neptune!" Said a voice from behind, making Neptune jump.

"Yikes! It's Histy!"

"Where have you been all this time? Didn't I say there were lots of work to do today?" Said the tome, unhappy at how late it was when Neptune finally returned to Planeptune.

"B-but Histy! The work is done! Just take a look," Neptune protested, handing the papers to Histoire, who then confirmed that indeed, everything for today was done (to her surprise).

"Well, I apologise. It looks like you had been working hard for today, good work!"

"(Phew! That was close, I'd better be off to take a break now)" Neptune thought, now that Histoire is satisfied with the work, she retreated back to her room. Naturally, wherever Vert took Nepgear, they were not back yet as the room had no lights on, but it did not matter to Neptune for now. Right now, she needed some rest after completing numerous quests for both Planeptune and Leanbox.

"(Now, how am I going to go about this? There will always be work, which will take away a lot of time. I need to think of someway to take Nep Jr. back! There has to be some way for Vert to realise how much Chika is stressing out too...)" Neptune slowly drifted off to sleep in her thoughts.

At the very least, Neptune was not alone in this, as Chika in her own room also thought about what to do. Today had still been a good day though, Leanbox had just got some much needed shares to prevent a meltdown, and even though she was not too fond of asking another CPU to do the work, she was very thankful for Neptune's help both for today and trying to get Vert back. After all, Vert will always be Chika's first priority, and today was only the beginning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: What are they doing?**

A week has passed since Neptune and Chika decided to work together. By now, Leanbox has stabilised thanks to the efforts of the two, but the real issue still remained though. Due to the worklife (And the lack of help), neither of them were really able to spend much time with Nepgear or Vert respectively, and this was frustrating.

Still, there was no avoiding some of the work they had to do, especially since the four CPUs had to take more time away when defeating the Deity of Sin in addition to the 3 years of being held captive. For the most part, Neptune had been going off to Leanbox more often so she could have Chika simplify paper work for her while she took on all the quests involved for both Planeptune and Leanbox. The whole event is quite bizarre for Neptune, she never imagined having to work for two nations at once, but by now she kind of understood things from Histoire's point of view on work seeing as how Chika was about to die (An exaggeration of course, but that's the idea).

"You know, when Vert isn't dressing up Nep Jr. like today, I wonder where they actually go?" Neptune asked, having realised that sometimes Nepgear was just not at Planeptune altogether, and Vert was not at Leanbox either, which meant the two went somewhere.

"I've been wondering about that myself, where do they even go and what do they even do? I must know!" Chika said, still hungering for some attention from the absent Vert.

"Hmm, maybe they are going over to the other nations? It seems like that's what they would do..."

"Ugh, someday I shall develop a Vert tracker device so that she can never escape from my sights."

"Whoa, you know that's starting to sound creepy..."

"Sorry, I am just thinking too hard about this right now."

"I understand. Anyway, I was thinking that maybe we could find out where they are if we take some quests in Lastation or Lowee."

"I suppose you are right, we have been sticking around in our area, it would be good to steal some shares of the other nations..." Chika responded, looking over at guild requests to see if there were jobs in either Lastation or Lowee. After a brief skim, she found a single quest, one for an investigation of suspicious activity at Rebeat Resort. Agreeing to take the job, Neptune headed off to Rebeat Resort near Lastation to fulfill the request while Chika used various resources to scout out Lowee.

As Neptune walked around the resort, she was tempted to relax a bit, it had been quite awhile since she has had the chance to relax, especially with Histoire always on her case about getting work done. It would not have been such a chore though, if Nepgear was at least around sometimes and Neptune could at least spend time with her, but most nights Neptune fell asleep from exhaustion before her sister came home.

"Man, the sun here really feels good... maybe this wasn't the best idea after all... and I gotta find out what this 'suspicious' activity is too..." Neptune said, almost breaking out in a yawn, but at the same time was when she noticed something or rather, someone nearby. Near the end of the resort was a certain figured dressed in mainly black, and had two short twintails, sitting down and seemingly looking at an empty space with binoculars. "Well, I'll be... that's Noire's little sister. I wonder what she's up to..."

Neptune tried to sneak up on Uni and maybe yell out something, but her foot steps proved to be too loud and managed to startle the CPU Candidate. Immediately Uni took notice of Neptune and turned around with gun ready to fire, "Huh? Oh, it's only Neptune..."

"Oh, hiya there..." Neptune said dumbly, looking like a fool now that Uni caught her trying to sneak up.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, I sort of accepted a request from the guild to track 'suspicious' activity in this area, are you doing something like that too?"

"Yeah..."

"Hey, why do you sound so down? Did Noire leave you all on your own again?"

"No, well... that's not entirely the issue. But... why is Nepgear always with Vert? I tried to call her multiple times when I have free time, but she's _always_ busy. And today, I saw her go into the movie theatre with Vert!"

"Movie theatre? So they were in Lastation after all..."

"You don't know your own sister's whereabouts?"

"No actually, as you can see, while she's hanging around with Vert, I have been exhausted doing all the work and have been wondering why Vert keeps taking her away from me too."

"I see, so it is the same for you?"

"Yep. I dunno what's up with that, but I am trying to do something about it... Anyway, if you're here for the same quest, did you find anything?" Neptune asked the question to change the topic, seeing as how the conversation was most likely going to revolve around whining about Vert.

"Hm, I see something at the edge over there, but I don't want to get too close and have them run away, the quest says to gather information discreetly."

"Well all right, keep an eye on it, I will sneak up closer to see if I can hear anything," Neptune said, opting for a more direct approach at the open area instead of watching from afar. Of course, Uni tried to persuade Neptune not do something so direct and possibly fail the quest in gathering information for both of them, but this was Neptune so no luck for Uni.

Upon closing in on the open space, Neptune pressed her back against the rail and peeked into the open space. In the middle was 3 people, all facing a small creature. The small creature was mainly gray and had a zig-zag tail, it was the dirty rat Pirachu! Of course, Neptune could not hear the conversation, but she did see three small boxes next to Pirachu, which interested her. However, there was no chance that she would be able to look into them now, as they looked like discreet packaging materials that Pirachu imported from the 3 people. Since the guild request was merely information gathering and prohibited direct contact, Neptune refrained from charging in like an idiot and instead just retreated to Uni to report what she saw.

"I see, so those grunts are still active," Uni said, while writing down whatever Neptune was able to observe from a safe distance.

"Yeah, so that's about it. Say, can I ask when Nep Jr. and Vert was in Lastation?"

"About 2 hours ago before I went out for quests. I thought she was visiting, but then I saw Vert..." Uni trailed off, sounding a little annoyed that Nepgear did not seem to so much acknowledge her at the time.

"All right, guess they won't be still around then. Well, I am trying hard to get some work done and then trying to take back Nep Jr, now that you've confirmed to me they're going around doing whatever they want."

"I just wonder how Leanbox has not crumbled with Vert always hanging with Nepgear."

"Well, I dunno, it must be the work of their Oracle or something..." Neptune lied, keeping her association with Chika undercover for now, so that Uni would not suspect her doing the quest to take Lastation shares. Without much more to say, Uni and Neptune parted, each having their objectives fulfilled. Neptune had also assured that she would get Vert to stop stealing Nepgear all the time, so that Nepgear can respond to Uni's calls.

Returning from Lastation, Neptune went back to Leanbox's basilicom and convened with Chika again, having found some crucial information. As it would turn out though, Chika had also found some valuable information regarding her search for information around Lowee.

"So? Did you find something interesting about Lowee?" Neptune asked, seeing as Chika was a little less than pleased by the facial expression of the oracle.

"Yes. I found out that... the two of them were in Lowee buying clothes! Why would Lady Vert do this to me, she's completely ignoring me!" Chika responded, completely hysterical over Vert's affection for Nepgear.

"Oh... so they were at Lowee too..." Neptune responded, now used to Chika's outburst and end-of-the-world hysterics.

"All right, did you find out anything?"

"Yeah, I found out Nep Jr. and Vert was at the movie theatre in Lastation while completing that quest..." Neptune reluctantly responded, knowing it would probably not please Chika one bit.

"I knew it! It's a **date**! But why!? Why her and not me! I've had enough, I must get rid of your evil sister!"

"Wait wait wait! I know you're upset, but can we just... not think about stuff like that for now and maybe relax a bit? Oh, my sister _definitely_ ain't evil by the way..."

At this point, Chika realised that perhaps she had went way too far with her dramatisation of everything and that she had also said way too much about getting rid of Nepgear, and so taking Neptune's suggestion, decided to take a break. "All right, sorry about that. I guess we did do some good work today. Say, are you interested in some video games? I've gathered up quite a bit in the past while and some of them I never managed to open even with Vert."

"Oh! I just love video games, whatcha got?" Neptune responded, all too happy to jump at the chance to play some video games after a long hard day of work. It was strange for both of them, because usually they would be playing games with the people they are closest to, but without Nepgear or Vert being available lately, both Neptune and Chika had a fun gaming session that went back and forth. After about 2 hours of gaming, the two of them were actually exhausted and lay down to rest for a bit.

"You know, your style of play is really much different than what I am used to from Lady Vert..." Chika noted, seeing how Neptune's strategies were not as thorough as Vert's but still innovative and executed well enough to win.

"Ahaha, I just do what works for me... and you're really good at a number of games too," Neptune responded, a bit surprised at how good Chika was at the various games they played.

"Yep, playing along with Lady Vert for years help a whole lot."

"Heh. We should do this more often when we have time."

"I wouldn't be against that, it was really fun. But for now, I think we're finished for today. You should probably get back before Histoire wonders about you."

"All right. I will see you tomorrow. Just try not to get way too stressed out over everything," Neptune said, getting up and packing her bag with her papers, ready to head home for the day.

"Hey Neptune?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you."

"Yeah, no problem, we're friends after all!"

As Neptune leave to return home to Planeptune, Chika sat down and thought about the day. She and Neptune had figured out where Nepgear and Vert was going, and while it was not a bad thing to have friendly relations, Chika was really hoping that Vert could at least see what she was doing for Leanbox and maybe help out a bit. While it was true that Vert did not have a sibling to call her own, that is probably not an excuse to go poach somebody else's sister away, and after all, Chika had always been there for Vert, so she cannot possibly figure out why Vert is doing as she pleases right now.

"Friends huh..."

The nights of loneliness had settled in for Chika for awhile, she would only wish that Vert would at least be there for her, and show care. Thankfully though, Chika was not completely lonely, at least this past evening the CPU of Planeptune had been there for some companionship. Before Chika would drift off to sleep, there was a call, and picking up the phone, she answered.

"Hello? ...yes? I see... well, I will see what I can do..." Chika responded while finishing the call. She sighed, it was at times like these that she wished Vert was available, with a bit of trouble brewing in Leanbox, it definitely would help to have the CPU around.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Take out the Trash**

Early morning the next day, Chika had tried to get Vert to help out with an issue that was brought to her attention last night. Vert had agreed to help out for once, but a slight miscommunication had Vert completing the wrong task. By the time Chika realised the mistake, the Leanbox CPU had already went off to Planeptune... again. There was little that Chika could do now, this blunder has this case unsolved. Fortunately, there is still one way to solve the problem, and the opportunity comes in the form of the door knocking. "Door's unlocked."

Opening the door and standing there was Planeptune's CPU, making her daily visit. It had almost become a regular thing, with what seems to be a switch with the CPUs of Planeptune and Leanbox. Unfortunately, only one of the CPUs is actually doing any work in this situation, and surprisingly it was Neptune of all people (Not that Histoire minded any of Neptune's absence since work was getting done everyday). Naturally, Neptune and Chika's goal was the same: Get Vert away from Nepgear and stop the current madness of sibling poaching (According to Neptune, this is somehow a thing).

"Heeeey, how's it goin today?" Neptune asked, a bit eager to get into planning and prying Vert away from Nepgear. The reason that Neptune was slightly happier is due to the fact that at least somebody understands her, and also somebody to play games with and relax during what little spare time they have. Naturally, having her work cutout and simplified by the Leanbox Oracle is another reason, but now Neptune finds the companionship to be of much more value than before.

"Hmm, today has been all right I suppose..." Chika responded, a little disappointed at how promising it was to have Vert agree to a request but seemingly disappear after awhile.

"Umm, it doesn't sound all right to me, did something happen?"

"Oh right. Excuse me, I actually had Vert go and investigate a case earlier with some more suspicious activity right here in Leanbox. Except that I think she mistook it for paperwork instead."

"(Whoopes, that sounds like me one of those times Histy asked me to do something and I only did the easy part...)" Neptune admitted in her thoughts before responding, "Well... I'm sorry to hear that, uh... why don't I help out instead?"

Chika sighed before responding, while it was nice to have Neptune help out in times like this, though this case seemed like it may be dangerous and would rather not put Neptune in danger in case if anything happened. "All right, I am grateful for your help. Just be careful about this one, I have a bad feeling about it," Chika warned before handing Neptune a piece of paper on the quest details and location where to meet with two others involved in the quest.

As soon as Neptune was out the door though, Chika resumed to her own secret project. Truth is, that Chika had slowly been eroded by her own feelings of dislike for Nepgear. If only the Planeptune CPU Candidate was not there, then there would be no problem with Vert always running off. If only there was someway to make Nepgear disappear, then maybe everything would be all right... But still, Chika knew that Nepgear is really important to Neptune and would not try anything direct. Yet still, the current information she had with some of her research did pique her interest. After reading through the rumours and facts, she decided to send some of her most trusted scouts overseas to investigate this one particular thing...

Neptune followed the instructions on the quest sheet and found directions to the destination: Underverse. The other details of the quest had been as follows: The citizens of Leanbox have been very afraid for a few days now, and this is due to brutal robberies happening everywhere. Fortunately, most people have been unharmed during the robberies, but what is of concern is the way it happens. Guild members have investigated the guards or personnel of warehouses and other institutions determined they were all either Paralysed, Poisoned, or fell Asleep. The cause of each condition is unknown, and the pattern of the said conditions are also seemingly at random. What is known however, is that one heist had the robbery sloppily drop some stolen goods while running away and the direction was heading towards Underverse, where there may be hideout. Guild members are wary of undertaking this task due to the unknown nature to how the mentioned ailments are applied.

Upon entering the volcanic area, Neptune looked around to see if some of Chika's buddies were around, but she saw nobody here for now. Not one to be patient, Neptune decided to call out to the empty space instead, "Hellllo! Are any of you Chika's friends around hereeeeeeeeee?"

From the shadows merge two figures, and Neptune instantly recognised them as both Leanbox natives. One of them was in a maid uniform with twintails while the other had headphones along with a familiar guitar.

"Lady Neptune? Did Chika sent you for this mission?" Asked the elegant lady, Cave.

"Umm yep. I heard something about Vert supposed to be taking this job, but then she did something else or something yeah..."

"Yes, that is correct. I am sorry that you have to get involved in Leanbox's affairs since Lady Green Heart has been playing real life dating sim."

"Oh, so you know all about the situation with Vert huh..."

"We have been working hard to make sure nobody knows about it for now, but we do hope to have our CPU back to working soon. In the meantime, we are grateful for your help. Planeptune must be blessed with such a hard working CPU."

"Pfffft, hmhmhm, hahahaha..."

"Did I say something strange?"

"Well Cave, I am... actually not that good, most of the time I avoid work when I can actually... Well, I mean, I saw how bad Chika was suffering about a week ago and just wanted to help her out."

"Ah right, about that... Lady Neptune, I should warn you about that woman. She's a professional drama-queen that usually bullshits everything. I would be very careful when dealing with her..."

"Oh... all right then, thanks for the info..." Neptune finished while the introductions are over and the party began to descend deep into the volcano area.

Their objective was simple: Apprehend whoever is stealing from Leanbox. The past robberies have been mainly food and money, but the main concern was if the target of theft would expand to include weapons or other dangerous materials. On the way down however, 5pb. speaks up to ask Neptune an all important question.

"Oh, excuse me, Lady Neptune..."

"There's no need to be so formal here, just Neptune would be fine, but anyway, what is it?"

"Is it true that your sister has been kidnapped by Lady Vert?"

"Weeeeeeeell... I wouldn't say kidnapped, but... I guess it's pretty close... I've been swamped with work that I barely have any time to speak to her about it, but if I have to guess, Nep Jr. probably cryin for help by now."

"I remember she said she wanted to keep in contact with everybody, but since Lady Vert always take her out..."

"Yeah, I know, you're not the first person to notice it, all of Nep Jr.'s friends are seeing the same thing right now. No worries though, I do plan to get things back to how they were before..." Neptune said, half-gritting her teeth at how everybody seems to miss her dear sister and has almost become a problem with Vert completely monopolising her.

As the two finished their short conversation, Cave raised her hand as they entered the deepest part of the Underverse, they had finally sighted someone of interest. Out in the open area was a short person, wearing a grey hoodie, and placing together many bags of what seems to be money and merchandise stolen from Leanbox. "Hehe, this is great, now there are funds to last for awhile."

Of course, the party recognised this figure, it was the infamous Linda, also more known as the Underling. Since the quest did call to apprehend the culprit behind the crimes in Leanbox, the party immediately confronted the stupid Underling.

"Stop right there," Cave commanded, leading the party.

Linda turned around and was annoyed at the intrusion. "Damn, it figures that somebody would be here already..."

"Oooh, it's that... person thingy... oh, Nep Jr. and the others called her the 'Underling' I think..." Neptune said, not one to remember stupid villain's names.

"Oh shut up! It must be easy for you guys to live in peace, you have no idea how it is like to live on the streets!"

"That matters not, we do not tolerate theft here," Cave said, while the rest of the party gathered around Linda and cornered their target.

"Not this three versus one shit again, look, why don't you just take your stuff back and leave me alone? Hehe..."

"No can do, we know you're always up to something, so better to get rid of you for good," Neptune replied, knowing that if Linda is involved with anything, it was better to placate her before she runs away again.

"I wouldn't be so sure..." Linda responded while brandishing her worn iron pipe, ready for a hopeless battle. However, Cave moved in quickly and managed to disarm the iron pipe before Linda could even attack. "Well shit... all right, I surrender... suckers!"

The party took readied themselves as Linda added the last comment, clearly she had another trick of some sort. It was not her though, but before the party could react, 3 canisters rolled in front of each of them and exploded. The contents were all gas, and everybody went into a coughing fit.

At this point, Neptune realised what was going on: The 3 boxes she saw Pirachu with was supplies for the cases of Sleep, Paralysis, and Poisoning. Looking back, Neptune saw exactly as expected, Pirachu had thrown the 3 canisters of gas and Cave had fallen asleep and 5pb. on her knees from paralysis. Which would mean that she was breathing in the poison gas right now.

"(Ambushed, this is really bad. I gotta break through!)" Neptune thought, before mustering all her strength and transforming into Purple Heart and breaking through to Linda. Of course, the Underling was prepared for such an occurrence and already had taken up her iron pipe again to defend herself from Purple Heart. While this was happening, Pirachu also approached from behind and forced Purple Heart to retreat to the side.

With both Cave and 5pb. out of the battle for now, Purple Heart had to deal with both the rats by herself. Unfortunately, she had breathed in enough poison that her movements were sluggish and her hands shaking.

"Oh, looks like we only took out two of them chump. I knew we should have asked for the stronger formula," Pirachu said, not quite happy with leaving Neptune still awake.

"Who cares, this is good enough, she can't even move right, we can beat the shit out of her as we like," Linda responded, grinning while seeing Neptune barely keeping balance.

The fight continued with Linda and Purple Heart clashing sword and iron pipe, but with Pirachu sneaking around, he was able to throw in a scratch, leaving Purple Heart in pain while Linda would take the opportunity and bash the CPU's head. Falling back, Purple Heart concentrated on trying to beat one of them to even the fight, but as she moved forward, Linda held up 5pb. as a hostage, causing panic.

"Haha, what'cha gonna do, one move and she's toast," Linda taunted, while Pirachu continued his assault on Purple Heart, who was trying to avoid the barrage of attacks.

Even though it was a tight situation, Purple Heart decided it would be best to dive right in to save 5pb. and went forward in full speed. Seeing as how the hostage was not doing her any more favours, Linda threw 5pb. at Purple Heart, who was able to catch her and lay her down beside Cave. However, during this time both Pirachu and Linda attacked Purple Heart from both sides and caused the CPU to fall down on the ground. Breathing hard from taking damage, Purple Heart pretended to be unconscious, and when Pirachu and Linda stepped near her, she sprang up and grabbed some dirt on the floor and threw it in the eyes of the rats.

"Auuugh, bitch!" Linda yelled, swinging her iron pipe in front of herself in case Purple Heart tried to attack.

Instead of a full frontal assault, Purple Heart concentrated her power and lifted her sword in the air. This was her only chance at disposing both Linda and Pirachu, and she could not afford to mess this up. As both Linda and Pirachu stepped back and slowly regained their vision, Purple Heart leaped forward, slashing them horizontally, then using her quickest movements to strike them from every direction and finally delivering the finishing blow of her Neptune Break to smash both her enemies to the ground. This feat had completely drained Neptune of her energy and she could no longer maintain her HDD form, but at least both Pirachu and Linda were knocked out by the technique.

After a short while, Cave and 5pb. awoke and they were all able to apprehend the two creeping criminals and bring them back, even though the effects from the poison gas had seemed to worn off by now, Neptune still felt a little dizzy, perhaps from overexertion.

"I'm sorry for being careless back there and have you handle everything Lady Neptune," Cave apologised, knowing she was usually quick to notice the tricks of the former ASIC members, but happened to lose track this one time.

"No worries, at least... we got em good..." Neptune breathed out, still feeling the exhaustion, which began to really take her over and she noticed her vision blurring as well as the dizziness intensifying.

"Lady Neptune?" Cave asked, seeing Neptune struggling to keep pace with them.

Neptune then noticed her arm had a few scratches on it and realised that even though the poison gas effect had worn off, Pirachu had infused the poison and scratched her during the battle. Eventually, Neptune lost balance and collapsed on the floor.

Neptune slowly awoke to a completely new unfamiliar place, though she was in a comfortable bed instead of the rocky ground of the cave she last fell down in.

"Whoa, where am I? Have I died and gone to Celestia or somethin!?" Neptune said, noticing the dimly lit furnished room.

Opening the door to her left was Cave, who was relief to see the CPU finally awake and well.

"Lady Neptune, it is good to see you awake."

"Oh thanks, so I didn't die back there. Anyway, this is soundin too formal for me, Simply Neptune will do."

Cave completely ignored Neptune's last comment while going on to explain what happened, "Anyway, looks like the rats had been using gases to rob Leanbox, and when you fought the two head on, you got some of that poison yourself. Thankfully, it was a common poison that we had the antidote for."

"Well, I see... Wait, how long was I out for?"

"A couple of hours, it is night time now."

"Whoa! I need to get back to Planeptune pronto!" Neptune said, ready to jump out of bed and go out into the night, only that Cave moved to block her way.

"I do not advise such a rash action, it is rather late now. Besides, Chika had already contacted Planeptune about your situation and excused you."

"Huh? Chika did all that?"

"Yes, it was kind of a surprise. But when we informed her that you had to be treated for poison, she was rather worried about you."

"Is that really a surprise?"

"Yes actually, for as long as I could remember, she was always obsessed with Lady Vert, and even have a plaque as proof. This is the first time she has been worried over somebody that's not her Vert."

"Oh I see... Well, that sounds nice and all, guess I'll just rest up and say thanks to her tomorrow, good night!" Neptune said, lying down immediately and drifting off to sleep before Cave could even comment any further. Yet, probably because of this Cave understood now that Neptune's dorkiness is how the CPU is able to so readily make friends with almost everyone.

The very next morning, Neptune had returned to Planeptune first thing. There was no need for any explanation for Histoire since Chika had covered everything needed to know, and since Neptune was technically working, so everything was good. Except for the lack of Nepgear around, which had Neptune wondering if her sister was really just being a pushover, or perhaps Vert maybe did have malicious intentions with taking away Nepgear. With this thought, Neptune now also understood why Chika is feeling so frustrated sometimes with Vert (Though unlike Chika, Neptune definitely will not label this as the end of the world).

Today was a bit different though, instead of Neptune heading over to Leanbox, Chika had business near Planeptune and would head over. Of course, they decided to meet around the outskirts of Planeptune so that Histoire would not see what Neptune is really doing with her paperwork. The place that they were to meet was just one of Neptune's many hiding spots from work, but given the situation, it was rather appropriate to meet here.

"Hello Neptune, glad to see you're well again," Chika said, while unloading her luggage of various things for work.

"Yeah, thanks to everybody helpin me out on Leanbox, I thought I was a goner back there. So, what are we gonna do at Planeptune today?" Neptune said in response.

"Just the same thing as always. Probably not anything dangerous like yesterday mind you. Besides, maybe if we're around Planeptune we'll catch Lady Vert coming back with that Nepgear..."

"Well all right, do what you have to do and I'll get our quests done~" Neptune said, even though she was a little wary of Chika always mentioning in the tone of 'that Nepgear'. Still, Neptune was sort of used to (and also knowing) the drama queen Chika by now, and so both the oracle and the CPU went to work as usual. However, Chika had set out to do what she really wanted to do over at Planeptune with contacting a few guild members...

Before the evening came though, Neptune received a call from Chika, and having a bad feeling she quickly answered to see what was going on. "Hello?"

"Hey Neptune?"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"I don't how to say this, but "

"Wait, Chika, what's going on?"

"Just meet me in front of Planeptune."

"Well all right, see you later!" Neptune finished the call, and quickly headed back to Planeptune from Virtua Forest Depths, unsure of what Chika was really up to all this time, but she had hope it was nothing too drastic involving Vert and/or Nepgear.

Running as fast as she could, Neptune finally arrived back at Planeptune's entrance, and Chika was right there as said, but the anticipation had Neptune very uneasy by now.

"Hey... what's going on anyway?" Neptune asked, eager to know what's going on, while Chika just stood there with a very calm expression with any panic as Neptune was.

"Neptune, you probably know this, but sometimes I find it unbearable knowing my Vert is always taking off with Nepgear."

"I know that, but... you didn't do anything to her did you!?"

"No I didn't, but look, do you have a private space? I was looking into the rumours, and found this artefact..." Chika said, holding up a big wooden box.

"Uh, well I think my room in the basilicom is open, if you really want to keep this secret..." Neptune said, trying to keep calm, unsure of what the big deal is.

Heading into Planeptune and into the basilicom, and sure enough, Neptune and Nephear's room was vacant. Having the privacy of the room, Chika set down the box and Neptune slowly opened the box, taking a good look inside, then her eyes widened as she recognised what Chika had just retrieved. Of course, it was scary to see it, but Neptune really had to think and question whether this time Chika was being a drama queen like Cave said or the oracle was seriously losing her sanity from Vert "abandoning" her.

"I am sorry..." Chika said, hanging her head in shame, realising that this was a bad idea.

Neptune however, was able to keep calm and confront Chika about the whole issue. Closing the box shut, she went over to the poor Oracle and assured her, "Hey, don't worry, I know you're angry, but there's no need for this. Look, maybe we should just wait for Nep Jr. and Vert to get back and talk to them about it. I mean... you're my friend after all, I won't let you go down that path..."

Chika looked at Neptune, then smiled weakly. Truth is, the oracle could only keep thinking that everything was fine when it was not. Yet, in the past week that she had spent with Neptune helping out, she was able to keep herself together and not completely lose herself from Vert always going off with Nepgear. Chika slowly calmed down while Neptune was just there, silently assuring the oracle that everything was going to be all right, as Neptune had said, they were friends after all.

Meanwhile, just on the lower level of the basilicom, Nepgear and Vert had just returned from another photoshoot with Nepgear dressing up.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: The Soul of Fight**

"I am so tired, Vert... Should we really be avoiding work everyday like this?" Nepgear asked, while traversing back to her room with Vert.

"There is no need to worry, we have been at war with ASIC so long, we do deserve a break once in awhile," Vert assured, even though it had been over a week of "a break" for the two of them now.

"I don't know, we've avoided work for quite awhile already..."

At first, Nepgear was fine with taking a small break, especially after a long fight with ASIC and what appeared to be a heroic sacrifice by the CPUs to seal off the Deity of Sin for good. Fortunately, the inauguration ceremony for the CPU candidates to take over was interrupted by the timely return of the CPUs before peace was restored in Gamindustri. However, having spent a little over a week with Vert, Nepgear had realised that even she could not get away from doing work for so long as Histoire would notice, and of course she also really began to worry about what Neptune was doing since the elder sister was always passed out and exhausted when she came home.

As Nepgear and Vert approached the room however, they heard voices from inside, and they both slowed down. There would usually not be anybody in Neptune and Nepgear's room, but with the lights on and the door not completely closed, the two were curious to see what was going on.

"Hey, it's all right. We just have to calm down and put this mistake behind us," Said Neptune's voice from inside the room, which really interested Nepgear and Vert now, knowing there was somebody else in that room. Of course, they also heard the "mistake" part too. What was it that was a mistake? Or maybe something scandalous was occurring!

"Yeah, I am sorry to cause you trouble, but thanks for being there," Chika's voice said.

"All right, so now all we gotta do is-ow, something got caught in my eye."

"Are you all right? Let me take a look."

When Nepgear and Vert was at the door and peeked in, they saw Chika holding Neptune's face close to her own, and they both tensed up. From the angle they were looking at, it was very suggestive. This was surely a scandal of some sort! Seeing such an unusual (or even vulgar) sight, Vert's mind went blank. How could something like this happen? She had only been gone for a little over a week with Nepgear, and now Chika was... No, Vert did not want to believe what she was seeing, it just did not make any sense whatsoever. It was true that because Vert never had a sister that she opted to spend some time with Nepgear, but to see _this_... it was simply unforgivable.

Vert still had her camera from when she was photo shooting with Nepgear and took a quick picture of the scene quietly, before backing away. Nepgear had backed away at the same time, not wanting to be caught eavesdropping after seeing that scene inside the room.

"Vert?" Nepgear asked, unsure of what to make of what they had seen.

"I don't know, this... cannot be!" Vert said out loud, still trying to take everything in. Before this, Vert had been rather calm and carefree, but seeing Chika like that aroused a sense of... jealousy? Or perhaps it was just disbelief, as Vert always knew that Chika does everything is for her. Yet, all Vert saw in that moment was something she had not expected, and not wanting to cause a huge scene immediately, she excused herself as she began to return to Leanbox.

Nepgear had tried to plead with Vert not to do anything rash, because it _could_ be a misunderstanding. By that time though, Vert already had an unusual grim expression on her face set out to rectify the situation on her own, which worried Nepgear.

Thankfully Neptune and Chika did not hear the two outside with their shocked reaction. The evening had begun now, and so Chika decided to head back home early today since she had her brief moment of insanity that lead her to retrieving the dangerous artefact. Chika left the dangerous artefact with Neptune in the meantime, as she trusted the CPU not to carelessly use it like she had planned while they would properly dispose of it tomorrow.

For the rest of the day, there was an awkward silence in both Planeptune and Leanbox. The one time where the CPUs are finally with their close ones, there was silence due to the scene that occurred in Planeptune, even though half of the parties were unaware of what the other saw. Still, nobody wanted to speak up about what happened in that room, and so the day ended quietly.

Next morning, Neptune awoken a bit earlier than usual, and to her surprise, Nepgear was still sleeping in the room as well. Not that Neptune would wake up her sister for now, knowing that Vert would might be here soon or something. As Neptune got ready to face another day, she noticed a letter mail addressed to her nearby, and decided to check it out. The first thing Neptune saw when she opened it was a photo, and it was a photo of Chika holding her close, and from the angle of which the photo was taken, looked really suggestive.

"(Ummm, this is...!)" Neptune's thoughts trailed off, rather appalled that somebody had taken a picture of the scene, especially at that angle. Still, even for Neptune, it was pretty obvious what happened by now: Vert and Nepgear came back from whatever they were doing during the day, and had caught the slightly opened door and peeked in the room at a bad time. Therefore, she understood why Nepgear was sort of acting a little weird at times last night. Sighing, Neptune then looked behind at the written part of the letter, and even though it has no sender, it was way too obvious who wrote it, especially the green ink.

 _Neptune,_

 _I demand to know what this picture is all about, meet me at the open fields of Leanbox_

Included in the bottom half of the letter was a very poorly drawn map of Leanbox with a red circle in the space in between the capital city and Underverse.

Before heading out to Leanbox (Neptune had planned to go to Leanbox as usual anyway), she made a quick call to Chika first. Knowing that Vert was likely out of the Leanbox basilicom already, Neptune could freely speak to Chika and explained what was going on.

"I'll be honest here, one of us might seriously get hurt..." Neptune said, holding onto her phone tightly.

"I am sorry for being careless, I didn't know Lady Vert would just happen to be there and cause so much trouble for you," Chika responded, clearly in a panic at what she possibly could have caused.

"No worries. It was not something we had control over, but I may as well try to talk to Vert while she's after me anyway, so wish me luck!"

"Wait, Neptune!" Chika pleaded, knowing she could probably defuse the situation before it got out of hand, now that she knows why Vert was being a bit reserved last night.

It was too late though, the call had already ended. Chika slowly put down her phone and wondered what she should do. It was a poor misunderstanding and an unfortunate one at that. On one hand, it looks like her Vert had not completely forgotten about her and was in fact completely jealous for her to the point of ready to headhunt Neptune. However, on the other hand, Chika had formed a solid friendship with Neptune and would rather not have a slight misunderstanding to leave Vert and/or Neptune seriously hurt. Neptune left out the details on where she was meeting Vert, so Chika had no way to directly intervene. Without much time to track either CPU, her thoughts raced while she tried to think of a solution, and finally she picked up the phone to make another call, seeing as how Vert is busy right this moment, it was her only chance.

Neptune arrived at Leanbox, and with the wooden box strapped behind her back. After all, she and Chika agreed not to do anything unnecessary, so after whatever confrontation with Vert, she would at least meet with Chika to ensure this dangerous object's destruction. The sun was out in full force, and Leanbox's open fields glowed bright green with a slight breeze, a perfectly calm day that can soothe even the most disturbed souls... except if the souls in question happened to be Neptune or Vert that is.

Going through a small bit of trees, Neptune arrived at an open field that was surrounded by trees, this is definitely the place that the letter or Vert spoke of. Loosening the ropes to the box, Neptune set it down on the side and walked forward, knowing that Vert was definitely here.

"Hellooooo Vert!" Neptune called out, standing still while waiting for the Leanbox CPU to show herself.

Surely enough, Green Heart appeared from above and just a short distance in front of Neptune. Seeing as how Vert was already transformed into Green Heart, Neptune knew that this was not going to be easy, but even so, she still had to try.

"Hello Neptune, I suppose you figured out who sent the letter..." Green Heart said, smiling her false smile.

"Yeah, well... I think the green ink was pretty obvious you know. But that's not the point, please listen to me, you are definitely misunderstanding things," Neptune pleaded, hoping Vert would at least listen.

"I am quite aware of what has been going on, while I had Nepgear with me, you decided to sneak into my basilicom, take my shares, take my oracle, and even played _my_ video games!"

"No no no no, that's all wrong, I never took any shares, and I had something in my eye last night, I was not taking Chika away! But... your video games were quite fun, which is why Leanbox has been doing fine."

"Do you expect me to believe that? I saw the shares decrease for Leanbox and increase for Planeptune... Nepgear was with me, so only you could have done that."

"(Ugh! It's true that I completed those quests, but doesn't Verty know that I helped Chika stabilise Leanbox with shares when it was actually falling apart!?)" Neptune thought, seeing as how Green Heart is pretty much set in hunting her down.

"I would not take these matters lightly Neptune, besides... you even planned to take Chika away," Green Heart taunted.

"Guess you really won't listen huh... I figured as much, prepare yourself..." Neptune responded, unusually serious before a white pillar of light engulfed her and transforming into Purple Heart.

The sword and drill arm of the Goddesses clashed, then both of them retreating a step, both of them intending to win this fight. Words were of no use here, but Purple Heart intends to prove her point to Green Heart, while the Leanbox CPU wants to straight out beat the other to submission.

Rushing forward, Purple Heart swung her sword, only that Green Heart jumped out of the way and kicked down. Raising her arm, Purple Heart blocked the kick and also parried the drill arm flying downwards at her with her sword. Quickly reacting with a counter-attack of her own, Purple Heart rushed forward with Cross Combo, sending Green Heart into the air with her hits.

Green Heart rebounded right away and shot her Sylhet Spear, knocking Purple Heart down. Without missing a moment, Purple Heart had gotten right back up to defend again, but noticed Green Heart had already snuck behind her and unleashed her Rainy Ratnapura strikes directly on her, causing pain from the back. Purple Heart did not falter and immediately turned around and performed her Critical Edge at Green Heart, who also took the direct hit after just recovering from the last skill.

With the distance between the two of them again, they stared down one another, ready to make the next move. Both of them moved at the same time forward, and clashing their weapons created a small space in between them, where then Purple Heart striked with her sword that barely grazed Green Heart, immediately, Green Heart followed up with her quick strikes of Phosphoressence, knocking back Purple Heart a distance. Knowing that the situation was critical, Purple Heart began to summon her 32-bit Mega Blade, but Green Heart already anticipated this and followed up with a quick strike, forcing Purple Heart to retreat instead.

Green Heart was not done though, as she immediately readied herself again and charged forward at full speed, striking Purple Heart with a spear thrust, and then following it up with multiple thrusts from all directions multiple times. Purple Heart was completely defenceless as she watched Green Heart charge up the final strike of Spiral Break blast her down right into the ground. The attack shattered Purple Heart's sword as she landed painfully on the ground, and while the fall had not caused too much damage, Purple Heart could no longer maintain her HDD form and reverted back.

"(Yep, she's playin for keeps...)" Neptune thought, seeing from the corner of her eye that Green Heart was approaching, and she was all out of options. There was simply no way to get out of this, except for _one_ option that Neptune had, since she did not want to die like this. As Green Heart came near, Neptune readied herself.

"Hmhmhm, did you believe you could actually win?" Green Heart said, thinking victory was all but assured.

"Maybe I can," Neptune replied, half getting up with spin kick to Green Heart, temporarily making the Leanbox Goddess lose balance. With Green Heart's height lowered by just a bit, Neptune charged forward with a knuckle and hit the CPU right in the eye, mainly for causing a distraction. While the CPU was in pain, Neptune quickly retreated backwards.

Neptune was bruised and cut all over, as she could not really run, but instead hobbled to the side of the battlefield where she left her wooden box. Using a small key she had with her, she quickly unlocked the box. Reaching in, she also untied a red string and pushed away the cloth, and then she hesitated. This was not supposed to happen at all, Chika had retrieved this thing out of desperation to get her Vert back, but now... Neptune was in a desperate situation of her own and this was unfortunately her last resort.

Green Heart stopped her advance towards Neptune when she noticed the Planeptune CPU brandishing an eerie rusty old sword, there was something not quite right here. Even Green Heart knew that Neptune would not be stupid enough to use such a fragile looking sword for fighting, but...

"What... is that?"

"The rumoured sword that can take a CPU's life..." Neptune explained, uncharacteristically serious now.

Chika had originally learned of the sword's location by research and scouting, and in a huge fit of jealousy retrieved it with yesterday's Planeptune visit so she can finally get rid of Nepgear... Naturally, with the growing friendship that Chika had with Neptune, she realised that this was a bad idea no matter what and eventually Neptune calmed her down. Ironically, Neptune was hypocritically using this sword now.

"(I am so sorry...)" Neptune directed her thoughts to Chika in her mind, it appeared she was no different than Chika in this way.

Neither Green Heart nor Neptune moved, it was now about whoever hit the other first that would win the battle. Neptune was injured enough that almost any technique from Green Heart would knock her out. On the other hand, just one well precise hit from the cursed sword and it will not matter how fast or strong Vert is, she will die. Slowly side stepping, Neptune and Green Heart stared each other down, neither wanting to mask a rash move with their life on the line.

Finally, Green Heart charged in to try and disarm or at least knock Neptune off her feet, but Neptune simply point the sword straight ahead at Vert, causing enough of a pause from the Leanbox CPU that she retreated in full force instead of moving forward. Naturally, Neptune had no intention of killing Vert, but the threat of the sword was her only deterrence for her own life, yet she feared that if this battle took any longer, she would still lose due to her succumbing to injuries.

"Com'on Verty, what's wrong, why're you afraid all of a sudden?"

"Don't underestimate me, just because you managed to get the bad ending item, that does not mean victory belongs to you."

"Yeah I know, give it your best shot!" Neptune taunted, while charging forward herself and striking the sword downwards, causing Green Heart to retreat again.

"(Well, this sure isn't good at all... I am really hurtin and about to fall, also... I will probably cause a big misunderstanding if somebody walked into this place and saw me using this sword...)" Neptune thought, having started to think of a solution for this fight, as she could very faintly hear voices from somewhere. However, she was not sure if her injuries were making her imagine things or something else, but either way, this fight had to end.

After a brief pause, Green Heart charged forward with high speed, enough that Neptune could not dodge and had to block the attack or counterattack, which were both equally as risky. Though this was exactly what Neptune wanted, and as Green Heart neared, Neptune readied herself, held the sword outwards and... let go. With the sword falling on the ground, Neptune opened her arms wide to welcome the charging Green Heart.

It was at this point that two other people ran into the scene, both Nepgear and Chika had finally arrived. Upon noticing Nepgear, Green Heart then realised that this was not good at all. What would Nepgear say as she appears to be murdering Neptune? It turns out that, just like what she saw yesterday in the room, a misunderstanding...

"Lady Vert!"

"Neptune!"

"(Oh baaaaaaaaad timing...!)" Neptune thought, having confirmed now that she did hear voices and it was not just her imagining things. Yet, she could do nothing to prevent Nepgear and Chika from seeing this one.

The next moment, the eyes of both Nepgear and Chka widened as they saw Green Heart's drill arm pierce and right through Neptune in the stomach. With what strength she had left, Neptune held onto the drill arm and looked Green Heart directly in the eyes. "Hey Vert, I'm sorry if I offended you, but... just listen, Chika was only really concerned for you and Leanbox and that's why I helped out. So... please don't misunderstand... " Neptune finished, and using her diminishing strength, forced Green Heart's drill arm out from her as she fell backwards.

In the next seconds in what seemed to be in slow motion for Neptune, she peered to the left and saw Nepgear and Chika, who were full out screaming or something, but Neptune could not really hear anything as she continued to fall and looked that direction with a smile as she crashed onto the grassy field before everything went all black.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Denouement**

White. White was all that there was when Neptune attempted to open her eyes, and it was blinding. Still, for whatever reason she could not possibly shut off her eyes forever. When her eyes have finally adjusted to the brightness, Neptune carefully observed why there was so much blinding whiteness. It would appear she was lying down to rest in some place with a bright light. Though the question is, why was she sleeping, and what happened? At that moment, it dawned on her that the last time she closed her eyes was when she was in some sort of huge fight with Vert. Wondering what is going on, Neptune forced herself to open her eyes again and surveyed her surroundings.

"Whoa... it's so bright here, did I go to Celestia?"

"Celestia jokes again Nep?" Said another voice from the left.

Neptune slowly turned her head to the left from where the voice came from and saw a familiar face in a blue coat. "Oh, so there is an Iffy in Celestia too..."

"No, this is Planeptune, not Celestia. Get your head out of the clouds."

"Ooookay, so... I am not dead?"

"No. You are not, you've just been recovering," IF replied, almost losing patience with Neptune for mentioning Celestia and thinking herself dead.

"Oh right, now that you mention it, I got into quite some trouble with Vert like... yesterday and got really hurt or somethin..."

"Yesterday? Nep, you've been asleep for about three weeks now..."

" _Three weeks_!?" Neptune exclaimed, springing up from her resting bed, but was then stung by an intense pain in her stomach area, "OWWWW, this hurts!"

"Nep, don't move too much, you're still not all well!" IF said, gently guiding Neptune back down to rest.

"All right, so what in the world happened anyway?" Neptune finally asked, getting back into reality and knowing that at least she was alive. However, she was definitely out for a lot longer than she had expected.

"Where to begin... lots have happened, but I suppose I'll start from the beginning..." IF sighed, there were lots that happened, but since Neptune happened to awake when she was visiting, she could spare some time...

 **1.** "That night three weeks ago, when Compa and myself were returning to Planeptune, Histoire was stressed out and pretty much yelling over the communications line, so we had to ask what was going on. Turns out, that was when we learned you were almost dead and was being cared in emergency at Leanbox. Both of us headed over as soon as we can."

 **2.** "Compa stayed by your side for about two days straight, trying to stabilise you, and afterwards Histoire finally got her explanation from Chika and Vert... and she was _not_ pleased at all... I heard she stayed in Leanbox and lectured the two for three days straight. Afterwards though, when she came back to Planeptune, Histoire then lectured Nepgear for _a week_..."

"Whoa, one whole week! That's way longer than what I've been through, is my Nep Jr. all right?" Neptune interrupted.

"Yeah she's fine, that week was mainly Histoire teaching her to stand her ground and actually say 'No' to certain things, as well as taking care of work while you're obviously out of it."

 **3.** "So anyway, as you might know, Leanbox really involved you when they shouldn't have, and so that is why Histoire was pretty much angry at everybody involved with the whole incident. I honestly had never seen Histoire like that before, but Compa and myself did figure maybe something was wrong when both you and Nepgear had been scarce for a long time."

"Oh right! That reminds me, during the last battle, I sorta had this thing with me, that umm... I was going to destroy." Neptune interrupted again, having just remembered the cursed sword that she dared to use.

"Can you let me finish? I was just about to get to that."

 **4.** "About the sword, I am partly at fault here too, because you know that one time Chika was over at Planeptune? She sent out a request to the guild for a dangerous item retrieval, which was to get the sword. I was actually the one who bought the sword back from the castle as well as packing it. I remember going around with Nepgear during the battle with ASIC of hearing rumours about it, but I didn't realise at the time because of how rusty the sword was."

 **5.** "Well, when Nepgear learned about what had happened and saw the sword, she transformed, and then used Celestial Severance _on the sword_ itself, grinding it to dust. When we asked her what she was up to, she kept muttering something like 'I hate that ending' or something, over and over again for sometime.

"Wait really, she used a skill on the sword? Ain't that super overkill?"

"Yeah, but she was so serious and determined to destroy the sword that we all sort of didn't question it too much, at least she returned to normal eventually."

 **6.** "In the end though, your condition was worsening, and we were all very worried, because if something had happened, there was going to be huge tensions between Planeptune and Leanbox, but since everybody already knew what was going on, we even got help from Lowee and Lastation to help us create another sharicite to finally stabilise you. And that leads us to today, where you are finally awake... Any questions?"

"Wow... looks like in the end it was Histy who forcibly fixed everything with Vert and Chika huh... I guess this means I am next for a lecture or somethin?" Neptune replied, seeing as how it appears that she could not solve anything for Leanbox in the end.

"Well... I don't know. I mean, with what happened, it was mainly Nepgear and Vert that was causing trouble in that case. I think you may have heard it already, but Chika... likes to bullshit a lot of things, and therefore got you involved, which was why Histoire had to lecture her for three days alongside Vert."

"I suppose, but... you know, seeing Chika like that just made me realise maybe that's what Histy feels like when I ditch work, that's why I wanted to help... besides, I did shoulder a lotta work during that time too..."

"Yeah I understand that, which is probably why Histoire was way more angry at everybody else but you."

"All right then, I guess I should at least go and say hi to everybody huh?" Neptune said, ready to get out of the bed and go outside, only IF stopped her.

"No, Compa said you shouldn't really move until you're better. Seriously though... Compa did say if it was anybody else, they wouldn't have made it, and for awhile we were all afraid that we'd lose you..." IF recalled, remembering just how frantic the scene was and how desperate it seemed at the time.

"Mmm, I wanna get up though, it's boring here..."

"Just get some rest Nep, I have to go and make sure Vert does not distract Nepgear from her work, under Histoire's orders..." IF said, getting up and ready to leave the room with her visiting time over now.

The door at the end of the room closed and Neptune smiled as she was thankfully to be alive and also that maybe some of the drama that occurred was resolved (or at least she hoped that Histoire's lecturing was effective). Surveying the rest of the room, she saw there was a window to her left, bringing the bright light into the room, and most of the room being painted white was what made the room so bright in the first place. Looking outside the window though, she can clearly see that this was Planeptune. Neptune knew that it must have been so chaotic for the first few days for people to save her while eventually getting transferred back to Planeptune. Yet there was one person she had hoped to talk to before thinking that everything would be all right. Except that she was in no position to move right now, least she risked reopening her wound. Without much option, Neptune lay down again to get more rest.

IF would bring the good news that Neptune had finally awake after a long time and everybody involved breathed easier, but nobody really had a chance to visit because of work to be done as well as Neptune needing time to recover.

After three days has passed, the door to the room opened, and entering the room was Chika. Neptune had made big steps to recovering her wound and was already standing by the window to get a good view of her Planeptune. Neptune was finally glad to see the familiar face of Chika since that day three weeks ago.

"Heeeeey, how's it goin?" Neptune asked.

"Hm, I was going to ask how you are doing, but it looks like you're fine. I suppose you've heard about everything from your friend already?" Chika responded.

"Yep. Looks like a lot has happened. So... how are things with Vert?"

"It's been fine, though the three days of lecturing was pretty heavy on us. I couldn't believe your Oracle is capable of such... words to be exact."

"Ahaha, I've been through worse actually. Anyway, umm listen... I... am sorry about trying to use that sword thingy..." Neptune admitted, even though she heard about how Nepgear destroyed it, she still knew it was hypocritical of her to use it in the first place.

"Don't worry about it, part of it was my fault in the first place. The three years all of you were held in the Gamindustri Graveyard, then when sealing off the Deity of Sin, and then when I finally thought that we had peace, Vert... goes over to _her_. I was not thinking, and so Histoire was right with some of the things she said. "

"Mmm, I can understand that, I kinda missed my Nep Jr. time for awhile back there as well. So what are you going to do now?"

"With Vert finally understanding what's going on, everything should be fine again. By the way, did you read what she wrote you?" Chika said, pointing to the right side of the bed.

Neptune walked over to the right side of the bed and looked at the small counter there she had paid no attention to before, and on top there was a card. Opening up the card on the right side was the generic "get well" message with signatures of the other CPU and CPU Candidates. Meanwhile, on the left side was Vert's signature and a full blown letter. Of course, from what Neptune could see, it was just a long drawn out apology and thanks, so she did not bother to read the whole thing.

"Well, I did say I'd help you out from awhile ago, so I guess we could say that it's all done huh..." Neptune said, smiling while Chika did the same.

"Yes. Even though it was not how I intended it to end and almost ending up losing you, I am really thankful for what you have done."

"No problem, that's what friends are for right?" Neptune replied, while she and Chika closed in to hug each other after a rather stressful month.

In the next few days, Neptune was able to fully recover and get back to her CPU duties. This time however, Histoire was careful to watch both her and Nepgear to make sure no incidents happen ever again. Neptune was finally glad to be able to spend time with Nepgear again, and while Vert did occasionally drop by to Planeptune, Histoire kept a _very_ close watch on the Leanbox CPU.

For Vert, she had realised that Chika was freaking out over her leaving for Nepgear, but eventually Vert assured Chika that she would not abandon the poor Oracle. For the most part, Vert was thankful that Neptune held up her nation and was open to inviting the CPU over for LAN parties, seeing as how Neptune actually enjoyed most of the video games at Leanbox when she played with Chika. Even more to her surprise was how well Neptune and Chika worked together in team games, it was to the point that Nepgear and Vert were incapable of winning against that duo, there was just something that always gave them the edge...

It would appear that most of the relations were healed with time and that Gamindustri is stabilising again into peace.

However...

A few days after Neptune had fully recovered, over at the Leanbox basilicom the dimly lit room where Chika and Vert stayed in was still full of activity. Chika had fallen asleep early, and Vert was cotinuing on gaming as usual. After most of the night has passed and finishing her game on the computer, Vert joined Chika to rest. Looking at the exhausted Oracle, she smiled, ever thankful for her presence. It may have been true that in the last little while she had unknowingly neglected her but at least Vert knew that Leanbox will always be her home and Chika will always be hers... or will she? Stirring from her sleep, Chika smiled in her dreaming state, and seems to be sleep talking. Nothing out of the ordinary, Vert was always familiar with the Oracle, especially around these parts.

"Neptune... I love you..." Chika said in her sleep, while Vert's face kept her smile but her face darkening as well as a visible anger vein appearing.

In the next moment, Chika was thrown out the room _through the wall_ for trolling Vert.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH, I'M SORRY LADY VERT!" Chika apologised, even though she herself had no idea what she said out loud earlier, but for whatever reason, she felt a need to apologise.

The peace to Gamindustri may have returned, but some relationships are bound to be ever-changing, especially with regards to Oracles and CPUs.


End file.
